And the Tryouts Begin

by Patrick Newman (Oct 18, 2010)

With the season over for more than half the teams now, we're seeing the tryouts begin. Lots of outside-the-boxing going on here:

Orix is looking at Venezuelans Luis Rodriguez and Victor Garate,
both of whom have MLB experience. Garate is a 25 year-old lefty who has
done well in 2A, but only reached 3A in 2010. Rodriguez is a 30
year-old infielder who bounced between the Majors and Minors between
2005-09, and spent last season on the White Sox' 3A team. Orix had four
Venezuelans on their roster last year, but management commented that
it's just a coincidence.

Rakuten brought in long-time US-based Indy Leaguer Travis Garcia for a tryout, but passed on signing him. Garcia has had some success in Indy ball but it's not clear that he was active in 2010.

Yokohama brought in four pitchers for tryouts: 2A righty Clayton Hamilton and Indy Leaguers Jeff Ridgway, Brandon Mann, and Joseph Newby.
Yokohama has had a hard time fielding a respectable pitching staff over
the last several years, but I don't think they'll find the answer here.
The pitchers in this batch are mostly in their late 20′s and haven't
had much success in the upper minors.

Of the guys listed in this post, only Rodriguez is a typical 4A type.
We'll see if any of them actually winds up signing contracts, but it
looks like a trend of at least considering less-established players is
emerging. The recent low-budget success of guys like Tony Blanco, Wirfin Obispo, Brett Harper and Francisco Caraballo have shown that sometimes these kinds of moves can work out.